The organist of the historic church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont on the Left Bank in Paris from 1930, Maurice Durufle published only a handful of works, including the four sacred choral works recorded here. Of these, the best known is the Requiem, completed in 1947. Unusually, it is based closely on the Gregorian plainchant melodies appropriate to each section of the text, both quote in their original form and freely extended in the same vein.